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2016 Combined:
Michigan Get-Together and Midwest Weigh-In

In a twist on the regional meetings, the annual Michigan Get-Together and the Midwest Weigh-In gathered at the home of Joe and Cathy Schaeffer in Leo, Indiana, on August 17th.  Leo is on the informal border between the two regions, located just outside Fort Wayne, so why not have a combined event?

Joe and Cathy’s house has a long Schaeffer history – having been the home of centenarian and long-time ISASC member, Ned Schaeffer, who sold it a year or so ago when he moved into senior housing.  Recently, after the house came back on the market, Joe and Cathy decided to bring it back into the Schaeffer realm.  They moved in only four weeks before hosting our gathering!

An extra benefit of having a joint meeting was the terrific turnout of twenty-three scalies.  It was a fun day topped off with a fine feast, including the bread pudding for dessert which was phenomenal!  Ned joined us for the day, fully participating in the festivities, and we had some new faces with Mark and Sharon Kempfer from Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Erv Brauer from Montgomery, Illinois.

We were encouraged to bring items from our collections to be part of the display, so Erv brought three scale-related, patent-application models.  For example, one is a dray wagon designed with a large, built-in steelyard scale that, at the site of delivery, can be used to show the buyer the weight of wagon’s contents – perhaps a load of coal. 

Others brought some unusual scales, which led to, “Guess what this one is for?”  Of course the main attraction was seeing Joe’s fine collection which concentrates mainly on computing scales of the larger variety.

Our many thanks go to Cathy and Joe for putting this together and being the consummate hosts. 

The 2017 Michigan Get-Together will be at the home of Utz and Shirley Schmidt, north of Port Huron, Michigan.  We look forward to getting together again next year and all are welcome.

– Greg Moss